Councils and health boards are failing to ensure vital care services can be delivered in the future, Scotland’s public spending watchdog has warned.

LITTLE over a year has passed since the Highlands’ two largest public sector organisations announced an overhaul of how they would organise their care staff.

Scots receiving health and social care are among those being urged to make their views known to the Health and Sport Committee today as the committee launches its call for evidence on the Social Care (Self Directed Support) (Scotland) Bill.

A new partnership is being formed to support efforts to give people who receive social care increased independence and the ability to direct their own care needs.

Scottish parents are facing some of the highest childcare costs in Britain, according to two children’s charities.

The Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW – part of BASW) has urged the government to embrace flexible and creative solutions to public sector reform in order to ensure the best possible outcomes for service users.

THE decision not to place a toddler murdered by his drug addict mother on the child protection register from birth “was defensible,” councillors heard.

The council’s community care boss has outlined a future where the elderly and those suffering from dementia will increasingly be looked after at home and “allowed” to do as much for themselves as possible.

A RUTHERGLEN nursery worker this week appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on two child sex abuse charges.

AFTER 20 years on the go some organisations can start to lose their drive as initial enthusiasm and early successes become just dim memories overshadowed by the long and weary slog of the day to day.